Drop shadow on paper tears

[lindse]

I have some fab papertears (from Steph) but now I am in doubt about the shadow..

I am going to make a square with tears on every sides. Lets say that the shadow is on the lower horizontal site and on the left vertical site - what about the dropshadows on the other sites? There shouldn´t be any shadows, should there?

What do I do??

[HolliDunn]

I usually add a very small, and lighter opacity drop shadow all the way around. I play with it a bit, and sometimes us my lighten/darken or dodge/burn tool to make it look more realistic. Sometimes I need a little more, and sometimes hardly any at all. It all depends on the color and if there is pattern on the background etc.

Take a real peice of paper, tear the edges, and hold it up to another peice. See how it looks. Sometimes that helps me decide what I should do too.

[lunafaerie]

Wow, thanks for sharing Holli, great advice!

[Roberta]

With my paper tears, I typically merge the layers with the tears and the paper/photo and then add the drop shadow. Works out well for me that way.